The town of Carlyle has been a relatively safe one for pedestrians and drivers, but their town council is determine to make it even safer. They applied for an SGI traffic safety grant and, at their last council meeting on Wednesday, January 15, they announced they'd successfully won the grant. 

The total grant was for $19.519, and the town council didn't have to think very long about what they plan to spend the money on. In fact, they've already got multiple smaller projects lined up for the grant money, which they'll begin working on once the snow clears out.

"We plan to put this towards a solar pedestrian cross walk," said Natalie Miller, town Chief Administrative Officer, "two portable radar speed signs, and LED stop signs that we plan to install at our railway crossings." 

The grant is decided based on applications from across the province. Carlyle submitted information about their railway crossings and input from local RCMP. They applied last fall and were thrilled to find out their joint efforts had brought more money into the community.  

"We were very happy to be approved, especially for the full amount of our applications," Miller said. "We are really excited to get moving on this project. It will start in the spring once the ground thaws."

The solar crosswalk in particular will be a big addition to Carlyle, as they're putting it up to allow children to cross from the school to the playground. At the moment, kids still have to cross one of Carlyle's busiest roads to get to the playground. 

"We currently have one on our main street crossing," said Miller. "This one will be installed in front of our elementary school, as the children have to cross over the main road to get to the playground. So this is where the new one will be installed."

Studies show that radar-based speed signs do cause drivers to slow down. And because they are portable, Miller said they can be moved to problem areas to collect data, which is then passed on to Carlyle RCMP. Town Council will meet again on Wednesday, January 29.